The Last Betrayal
by Titania Le Fey
Summary: This may be a bit emotionally disturbing to some people so this is your warning. Covering the time from Snake waking in the hospital after the Leningrad Ruse to his actions upon discovering the death of his parents.
1. Price of Heroism

Snake barely remembered what had happened. He still couldn't tell where he was, afraid to open his eyes. He remembered the crash, the burning in his eye and the ground careening toward the front of his glider. Who had found him? Was it friend or foe? Never a man to fear for long he opened his eyes, squinting against the bright light. Something wasn't quite right but he couldn't really place it as he scanned his surroundings. Slowly his eye adjusted to the light and the answer to his question came. He could only see one side of the room, the right side. 

Snake's face crumpled in confusion leading to more pain. He groaned trying to ward it off and understand what was going on. His mind raced as he attempted to search for an answer.

Images hit him; the flash, a scream on the comm., snapping sounds followed by pain, a burning pain like none he had ever known. His eye widened as he mumbled "No". Internally or out loud he couldn't be sure if he had actually spoken.

Snake forced his hand to find his face. There he discovered a piece of leather over his left eye. His fingers could feel the chord like straps extending into his hair. Snake knew what it was and why he couldn't see the left side of the room. He had to explore underneath the patch. Snake had to know what happened, how bad it was. His fingers wearily found the edge of the stiff leather. Snake took a deep breath preparing for the worst. Lifting the patch he felt a burning, excruciating pain as the light filtered in. The scream that followed was so loud Snake could have easily imagined it coming from someone else. Snake had never screamed from pain, not like this scream.

Someone pulled his hand away and replaced the patch. The hands were rough and he heard them speak but the pain filled his ears muffling the words beyond recognition. For a long time Snake laid still clenching his jaw against the residual throbbing.

"Hey Snake, You ok man?"

This time the voice was unmistakable and friendly. There was a sigh of relief. "Taylor?" Snake felt the hand on his shoulder and turned his eye to see his second in command sitting at the bedside.


	2. Waking in Hell

_Snake was groggy and everything hurt, the light was too bright, the bed was like sleeping on thorns and the whole left side of his ribcage was numb._

"So this is Hell." _He mumbled to himself still unsure of where the Hell he was or what had happened. Slowly things return. First the burning pain and blindness whose throbbing he could still feel in his left eye, then Sophia crashing and later his own glider crashing near the base when he passed out._

"Hey, Hot Shot, you wake?"

_Snake instantly recognizes Taylor's voice even through the pain._ "Yeah, in a minute." _Snake mumbles trying to pull through the haze of the drugs and pain killers. His eyes open. No, only one eye opens. Snake gingerly touches his face and feel the patch on his left eye for the first time._

"Taylor, what happened?" _He asks weakly as he turns to look at his life long friend. Snake's open eye falls on the cane across his lap. "Taylor never carried a cane." His thoughts reel with the unbelievable circumstances._

_Taylor sighs._ "They say the muscle in your eye is dead." _Taylor looks down at his mangled leg and the cast._ "Its never gonna git better, Snake."

_Snake's arm lowers as he attempts to cope with the knowledge that he was now partially blind._ "How bad is it?"

_Taylor looks at Snake in the hospital bed. Most of his body is wrapped in bandages of some sort or another. In truth Taylor could never remember Snake being as still as he is now, he was a man always on the move and now... Taylor's thoughts pause as he sighs._

"The patch is forever. The eye is still there but only in the dark is it gonna be a damned bit of good."

"Shit" _Snake mumbles as he struggles to sit up. He grits his teeth in pain as he felt the burning in his side. Nurses rush in to force him to lay down. He heard mumbles about broken ribs and shrapnel wounds. "Well that certainly explains the excruciating pain," Snake muses as he lays heavily on the bed angry now with his inability to sit up._

"Wha ...What happened to us out there." _Snake finally stutters out as the pain began to subside enough for him to unclench his jaw._

_Taylor had been dreading this since he had found out. He knew Snake and he knew he was going to be furious but which would make him lose his mind that was another question. Taylor looks away for a long time staring at the people passing in the hall._

"Snake, they set us up." _Taylor finally whispers._

"What!" _Snake's voice was full of fear and anger._

"Yeah, we were propaganda... few good boys die and they can keep this bloody war going... and.. and they left Sophia there."

_Snake just stares at him in disbelief. His mind turns to the last images he remembered clearly-- of Sophia being pulled from her glider by the Russians, the faint scream he could hear as they tore her uniform from her, and the next instant when he was hit and blinded. Snake felt his face crumple in anguish. All of this loss for nothing._

_Snake snarls in anger and sat up ignoring all of the pain._ "I'm getting the fuck out of here now."

_Hatred began to burn in his soul, a need for vengeance to right the wrongs that had been done. He hated them, all of them._


	3. Enemy of the State

Snake lay awake in his hospital bed unable to sleep. Glancing over in the dim light he could see Taylor dozing but he was twitching. They both had nightmares now. The horrid memories were someone's idea of a joke. The nightmares were a way for the government to fuck you and get their way even when you were alone. Their way, the government's way was the wrong way, at least in Plissken's mind.

He stared up at the ceiling again trying to trace the mess back to someone. He needed an individual to blame in order to salvage his sanity. That grasp on reality felt fragile at the moment and the only reason he knew he wasn't insane is because he deduced a crazy person would not question their sanity. Of course the government was the reason but revenge required a person who could be killed for the outrage of The Ruse.

His mind struggled through the haze of morphine and the concoction of painkillers slowly dripping into his bloodstream to find the source of The Ruse. Memories filtered back in rewind until one image, Captain Berrigan, stuck in his mind. Snake could see the mask clearly in his mind's eye. The Captain never removed it even in the sanctuary of the barracks where the air was cleansed of the poison mist.

Snake mumbled a string of slurred curses under his breath. He had no face on which to lay the blame. There had to be something else he could use to pin down his first victim when he was free of this bed and the bland white room. Nothing came to mind and he strained his memories for an answer.

Eventually, he discovered one other clue. Plissken had a voice; it was a speaker enhanced voice from within that motherfucking mask. Taylor's voice and his own had been barely changed by the microphone and reception system. It would stand to reason that the voice emanating from the mast would uncover the man beyond.

It was a start. Snake remembered that voice and locked on it dwelling on the details. He was a vicious predator now nursing his wounds to return and stake his claim and vengeance upon the one who had usurped his rights. Systematically Snake lay in his bed comparing that one voice to every other he had heard. Female voices were thrown out first. The Captain had most certainly been male.

Plissken stewed on the idea that it had been a man that betrayed him, killed his friends, the woman he loved and as Snake would soon discover his parents as well. He despised that man with a hatred that began burning like a blast furnace within. The only desire Snake had as he gazed at the barren ceiling was to see that man dead. First he had to discover who that masked coward was. Snake couldn't help but wonder if Captain Berrigan had suspected Snake would survive and purposefully hid his identity.

That brought Snake back to the voice. He resumed his methodical comparison determined to discern the bastard behind the gas mask. Every voice failed to match the one he sought. Frustration added to the burn of hatred. The Snake would not be denied that one piece of satisfaction but the more he dwelt upon it the more it seemed that was exactly what was going to happen. The government had purposefully hidden his identity. Plissken was not deterred and silently vowed to discover the identity of Captain Berrigan. Until then the government would regret hiding his face from the man he failed to send to his death.


	4. The Government Payback

Snake turned down Woodcrest and he felt a lump in his throat. It had been almost two years since he had seen his parents. The anxiety had building during the long drive from Texas and now it was to a fevered pitch producing a crushing pressure in his chest.

Mrs. Stella waved when he turned on to Sever Street. He noticed she was frowning and looked scared. Snake was confused she had always been a happy woman. He turned his eye from the woman back to the road in front of him. What greeted him caused Snake to slam on the breaks and clamor from the jeep. It was an empty lot with burnt beams sticking out over the weeds.

Snake couldn't even think. The door began to ding from being open. Snake didn't even notice. Like a car crash he couldn't look away from the vacant lot where his house once stood. The door slipped from his hand and slammed shut. Slowly he broke away from the shock to look and see who now stood beside him. Somewhere deep inside he hoped to see his mother standing there but it as Mrs. Stella. Snake tried to speak but there was nothing to say at first. His thoughts were too scattered to form a coherent thought let alone a question. She put her hand on his shoulder and he looked down at the ground.

"I'm sorry Steven." She wasn't looking at him and he tried to ignore what he knew those words meant.

"Sorry? Sorry for what?" His eye turned back to the burnt out lot. "Wha… wha.. ?" Snake couldn't actually find the words to ask what he wanted to. He stared at the vacant lot.

"Steven, let's go inside. Come on." Stella took his arm but he didn't move. His eye turned intently to her as the shock began to wear off.

"Where are they?" Snake was shaking and his voice was furious. Stella didn't say anything but he could hear a stifled sob as she let go of his arm. He turned staring at her as she covered her face with her hands.

"Where are my parents?" He asked again trying to hide the emotions that were swirling in the pit of his stomach.

"They're dead, Steven, dead." She finally stammered in a tear broken voice. She grabbed a hold of Snake burying her face in his jacket before he could even comprehend the words. He wrapped an arm around her and turned his attention back to the empty lot where his childhood house had stood. The words she had stuttered were finally starting to sink in.

Snake pulled her face up to look into his. "wha..How, When? Tell me! Tell me what happened." Snake was snarling out the words but it was from pain not anger. He couldn't believe they were…. He couldn't even think the words.

"The crazies took them and…"

"And What?" Snake snapped at the woman.

"And...Well the police came. When the crazies wouldn't give up they...they...they burnt down the house." She burst into another fit of tears and Snake scowled.

"What?" He looked back at the burnt timbers. "…but my parents? What about my parents?"

"They left'em inside. Oh, Steven I'm sorry."

Snake's eyes narrowed. "Didn't they try to get them out first?" Stella shook her head no. Snake looked away feeling a knot growing in his stomach. He couldn't cry there was too much emotion to even breathe. The sickness in the pit of his stomach grew and he gagged. He felt like he might wretch as he turned away from Stella choking. Snake closed his eye tightly trying to get a hold of himself. It was worse then learning of the loss of his squadron. At least they were military and the possibility of death always hung around them but this was much different. Taking a deep breath he turned back to face the woman who was patiently waiting for him with a face full of concern.

"They murdered my parents? Why?" Snake finally asked. He was forced to press his hand to his mouth to ward off the nausea and the returning feeling that he might vomit.

"We tried to convince them to go in for them... but... they said two people weren't worth the risk."

Snake stumbled back away from her in disbelief trying to imagine she was lying. He thought maybe this would all be revealed to be some nasty joke. The longer he stared at her the more evident it became that she was telling the truth. They were gone.

Snake ran for the empty lot leaving the woman calling for him as she tried to follow. He didn't know what he would find but he had to see it. Snake waded through the weeds finally stopping on the stone stairs that had once stood before the front porch. A pain filled grimace etched into his features as he took in the scene. He had seen the horrors of war but nothing could have ever prepared him for this.

He stood frozen, staring across the empty pit where the house once stood. He could see a flash of memories mostly of the porch, Taylor and worst of all Sophia and his mother giving each other a hug on the porch, the porch that was gone and the women that were gone. Snake looked down at the ground. A glimmer caught his eye causing his brow to arch. "What is that?" He mumbled stepping down from the stoop into the damp weeds. Snake cautiously bent down to pick up the small circle of silver. No sooner had his fingers touched it then he realized what it was.

"Cloe?" he whispered as his eyes took in the matted mass of hair and bones. He slowly pushed the tall grass aside revealing shell casings. He picked one of them up and rolled it around in his fingers. ".9 mm" he mumbled as his eyes turned back to the corpse of his old dog. His eye drifted between the casing in his hand, the casings on the ground and the pile of bones before him. There was a hole in the front of the skull, he could see it. It passed from the skull out the back and into the shoulder blade where the metal fragment was still lodged. "They shot her? Why? Why shoot an old dog?" He wondered as he dropped the casing on the ground. He stood once more in the lot looking around with a mixture of disbelief and anger. Snake stumbled back out toward the road. He felt numb, like he had stood in the cold too long without moving and now his whole body was aching and cold.

He stopped in front of Stella and glanced back at the place where the house once stood. "Where'd they bury them? I want to visit their grave." Stella looked down the road. Snake followed her gaze unsure of what it meant he asked again. "Where'd they bury them?" She looked away this time and Snake became concerned. "What is it?" The sickness was rising in his stomach again.

"They took them down to the pit." She finally said unable to meet Snake's gaze.

"The Pit? Where's that?" Snake had a bad feeling about that statement he knew what the military called "The Pit". It was a mass grave but for the moment Snake tried to ignore the knowledge he had.

"At the end of Alderson." Stella answered finally looking at Snake. "I'm sorry Steven." Snake placed his hand briefly in hers before he started walking back to the jeep. He felt a horrid weight growing in his chest as he got in the vehicle. The five block drive that followed seemed to take forever. He could smell something outside, a growing smell and a familiar smell he couldn't seem to place.

Snake pulled into the cul de sac at the end of Alderson. There was something still smoking at the far end of the circle. There were military vehicles parked on one side. He could see a few personnel moving around them but his eyes were carried back to the other side where the smoke was still wafting up from the ground. He stopped the jeep and got out his eyes locked on the smoke. He walked over toward the curling smoke. He could see a depression in the ground that grew. He couldn't stop he wanted to look inside, like a man eager to peek inside a vehicle that had just been slammed into by a train. The smell was growing and his mind was starting to recognize it. "A battlefield. It smelled like a fucking battlefield." His eyes turned down with the realization to look over the edge of the pit.

Snake wavered feeling faint. It was a pit full of charred bodies and the air at the edge was heavy with the smell of kerosene. "This is where they took my parents?" Snake mumbled, staggering backward until he fell to the ground heaving from sickness. He couldn't move he just lay crumpled on the ground attempting to erase the images he had just seen. He couldn't forget them and slowly he looked up his eye once more settling on the military vehicles on the other side of the cul de sac.

All of them were military vehicles, they were not abandoned either he could still see the people moving around near them. Snake debated only for a split second before he started to move. Casually he pulled out a cigarette lighting it as he approached the nearer of the trucks. He was in full military uniform and arrived in a military vehicle, chances were no one would question his presence.

The decision was already deeply planted in his mind and the need for revenge and possibly even vengeance already coursed through his veins like white hot fire. He would make sure they all paid for what they had done to him and those close to him.

Snake looked inside some of the trucks until he found the kerosene containers. He glanced at the others who hardly noticed him before climbing in the back. Snake tore a strip from his uniform shirt and stuffed it into the nozzle of one of the cans. Snake once again stepped out and leaned on the bumper casually as he observed the others moving around. Once they were all out of sight he pulled out his lighter and lit the strip of cloth. He ran like a bat out of hell to his own jeep. He wouldn't look back at the truck. Snake would never look back again. He couldn't now anyway there was nothing left for him to look back on any longer.


	5. Regrets

Snake sat in his humvee with his knees pulled to his chest. The images were over twenty four hours old but in his mind they were still as fresh as they had been during the first seconds his eye had took in the horror in the pit. He wrapped his arms around his legs pulling his knees closer and let his forehead fall to them. He couldn't cry. There was still too much pain for tears and the feeling of betrayal was so overwhelming that it had already caused him to wretch. How could the country he fought and nearly died for turn on him as it had?

He was lost. Snake tried to ignore his feelings but they were too strong. He looked out at the open road toward Deadwood. There was nothing left, no one left to turn to. His parents were murdered, his pride, honor, trust, friends; everything was gone. Snake for the first time that he could remember felt small, weak and utterly helpless. His mind was reeling through the possible ways to avoid what had happened but he was beginning to realize it was unavoidable. He had been sitting out in the humvee all night by the Deadlands. Snake hadn't seen a single crazy yet the government had claimed his house was overrun with them Snake knew it was a lie.

Snake exhaled heavily looking across the road at the last light of the sunset. He had sat here despairing too long. He didn't feel any better now then he had the day before. His eye closed and he turned back to looking down the road. Snake uncurled his legs and readjusted the seat it was time to move on. He opened his hand and examined the tiny locket in the fading light. The metal was tarnished from the six months it had spent in his uniform pocket but it still bore the memories.

Slowly Snake opened it flipping on the overhead light. The two pictures inside were about all he had left. The one was of his mother and father right after they were married the other, the other was more painful. Sophia sat smiling from the back of his bike with her head resting against his shoulder. The picture was from the previous summer and now she was gone. He closed his hand listening to the small clasp snap shut. It was the same feeling he had inside like he was closing down for good. Snake switched the overhead light off and gently hung the locket from the mirror. He watched it swing until it had nearly stopped lost in all of the things that he never got to say to the people who remained inside the locket. Many of them were agonizing. The last words he had spoken to his father were out of anger but even that was minute when compared to the one thing that he now regretted more then anything else. Perhaps he had never said it out of fear or shyness or the feeling that it might make him weak somehow in the eyes of those around him but he regretted it now more then anything in his life. Sophia never knew what he thought when he saw her. Maybe she knew from his smile that he was happy but he never told her in all the time that he knew her that he had fallen in love. Now all he could do is regret the moments that had passed when he could have told her and didn't.


	6. Drowned the World in My Sorrow

Snake wanted the world to die, all of it to burn up in the orange hot fire that now raged behind the new patch. That fire was a constant reminder of the fire that had consumed his parents, burned the battlefield and his glider as he raced back to Helsinki. 

The world refused to burn up under his gaze so he relented to drowning it. There was already one bottle laying empty in the Hummer's bed next to him and another well on the way to joining it. There wasn't enough here or anywhere in fact to erase the memories. Snake fancied drinking all the booze in the US. All of it, not leaving a single drop anywhere but it was so far away. Even the bottle sitting in the front seat was too far away. Reluctantly he crawled toward it and the world began to swim in the booze coursing through his body.

Snake collapsed with a groan but he had managed to get close enough to grab the bottle. Rolling over he gazed up at the sky and the plane gliding across the darkness. Weakly he raised his arm and flipped it the bird.

"Fuck you jackasses!" Snake scowled fumbling with the cap under his numb fingers. "You'll all burn in Goddamned red hot Hellfire!" Snake started laughing "Right the fuck with me, bastards!"

He bent his one knee and looked toward the road as he slowly scooted to a sitting position. There was a car coming and the headlights made his head throb uncontrollably. Shielding his eye he started screaming at the approaching vehicle.

"Turn your fucking lights off you son of a bitch!" The pain increased as the light spread across the Hummer. He clenched his teeth and took a huge slug of vodka. There was a shadow moving toward him in the headlights, maybe there were two.

"Go the fuck away son of a bitch unless you want shot." Snake took another drink deciding that there was only one person out there.

"Snake?" The voice was concerned but Snake didn't notice.

"Don't you fucking listen?" Snake pulled his revolver and tried to cock the hammer. His thumb kept slipping off and he grumbled s he threw the gun at the shadow.

"Fuck! You son of a bitch!"

"Snake, man you've had too much."

"Who the fuck are you to tell me that bullshit?" Snake took another drink.

"Come on. You're going to kill yourself man."

Snake grimaced at the shadow. "The only one getting their ass killed is you bastard!" Snake pulled himself to his feet swaying as he clung to the roll bar.

"Snake, what are you doing?"

Taylor's worried voice came through as a muffled blur in Snake's spinning world. He finished off the bottle and hurled it at the shadow but the fucker dodged. He became furious and took a step toward the tailgate. Suddenly, his legs turned to Jell-O and he wobbled stumbling over the side. Snake slammed into the gravel but couldn't feel the impact to his booze numbed body.

"Snake!"

He felt someone touch his shoulder and swung his fist at the bastard. "Get your damned hands off of me!" Snake shoved the hand away before trying to stand again. The world was whirling and filling with dark haze. The shadow was still there and Snake pulled his boot knife as he stumble forward.

"Come here motherfucker. I'm going to stab the shit out of you."

He followed the shadow as it backed into the burning headlights. His body went completely numb and he fell to his knees continuing to crawl forward. The spinning accelerated and the knife slipped from his hand. Snake stopped looking up at the shadow as the blackness closed in and he slumped unconscious to the ground.


	7. Clipped from the Lawrence County Centenn

**Clipped from the Lawrence County Centennial  
**

_January 15th, 1991_

**Police force bombings linked to former war hero.**

**_By: Alexius Thornbur_**

Deadwood, South Dakota

The US Police Force has found leads at the sites of last weeks bombings linking them to a former special forces Lieutenant. Police Commissioner Robertson has named the suspect as 24 year old, Lt. S.D. Plissken who was recently honorably discharged from his Special Forces unit due to injuries received during the Leningrad disaster. Plissken, originally from the Deadwood area, has been sighted just prior to two of the five bombings by civilian eyewitnesses.

It is suspected that Plissken is suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome. Robertson has issued a warning listing Plissken as armed and exceptionally dangerous. Military doctor Nathaniel S. Julston spoke with a reporter earlier and stated, "Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome is characterized by violent and often irrational behavior. It is linked with a person's inability to cope with a past situation. Most often linked with war, it leaves a person to relive or view the world as though they are still in the situations of the past. Plissken's behavior is characteristic of a severe case of this syndrome. Having been on the front lines directly engaged with the enemy and his recent injuries his perspective of reality is no doubt skewed in such a way that he sees military forces as Russians. The best thing for this young man is the help of a qualified doctor and so it is of utmost importance that he is found before he hurts more citizens."

Others have offered conflicting views. A man interviewed in Deadwood claiming to know Plissken personally and who asked to remain anonymous argues that Plissken's criminal acts are relate to the loss of his parents during a "crazy" raid last fall and the Leningrad Ruse. This man maintained that the military intentionally sent Plissken's Gullfire squadron on a suicide mission to prolong the war and that no attempt was made to recover his parents during the hostage situation leading to their eventual deaths in the fire that consumed the Plissken residence. The accusation appears to be unfounded as Robertson asserts that Plissken was regarded as a fine soldier and hero and that every effort was made to recover his parents before the "crazies" set the house on fire. Furthermore the military maintains that it had no prior knowledge of the Russian forces that had moved into Leningrad just prior to the Leningrad disaster.

The events leading up to the bombings do not change the outcome of the events. Lt. S.D. Plissken, also known as Snake (pictured to the right during his decoration ceremony in December.) is considered dangerous and the US Police Force is asking that citizens report all sightings to your local police station.


	8. Broken Brother

Snake was sick from all the booze the night before. He was even more ill from the scene that had caused the drinking in the first place. Plissken's mind couldn't wrap around the thought of his parents being gone, of Taylor's family being gone. Every time he tried his mind would breakdown and he'd feel it. There was hate inside of him like he had never felt before. It burned like the pain in his damaged eye.

In silence he sat unmoving, forehead in the palm of his hand, arm propped up on the arm of the chair. Snake was staring out the window but saw nothing. He heard nothing. He wanted to be nothing. He had nothing. The repertoire repeated in his head on an infinitely loop. Snake wished he felt nothing but that was not who he was. He felt too much.

Taylor had watched over Snake most of the morning but he hadn't moved. He might have thought Plissken dead if he didn't see his chest moving as he breathed. For Taylor this was torture worse than his bum leg. His friend, his brother was falling apart at the seams and through the haze of the last few days Bill couldn't find the words to bring him back to reality. The only reality that existed for the Lieutenant was the one his mind was creating. Taylor already knew from his expression that it was a nightmare filling his blank stare.

"Snake?" Taylor's voice was barely a whisper. Something about Plissken's demeanor was off. He had the appearance of a twig bent to the point where the bark was beginning to split before the inevitable snap. Plissken didn't move.

Taylor tried again. "Steven?"

Plissken looked up at the man on crutches. His mind was too caught up in its own world to immediately recognize the man. His brow furrowed as he fought with the memories. All that was there in his thoughts was the need to disappear. He wanted to fade away but this person took away that comfort of pretending he didn't exist.

"You alright, man?" Taylor coward from the emotion seeping into Snake's rather confused expression.

"Do I look like it?" Snake's voice dropped to cold venom. The cheek below his bad eye spasmed like a bad nervous tick. Taylor had never seen that before and backed away as quietly as he could on the metal crutches. Plissken was going to snap. Taylor could feel it.

"Do I look like it?" Plissken asked it a second time. This time his eye came up glaring cold like his voice. Taylor bumped into the wall. He had never been afraid of Snake before, not in the 15 or more years he'd known him. In this moment Taylor feared for his life.

"Just relax." Taylor didn't know what else to say. Was there anything more to say? Taylor had lost a lot but he hadn't seen as much as Plissken had. Taylor didn't think he would be as held together as Snake given the circumstances.

Snake stood abruptly and growled. "You fucking relax."

Taylor watched the way Snake moved. It was so much different than the man who had climbed in the glider for Leningrad months earlier. He seemed like an animal on the verge of some emotion Taylor couldn't quite place. Taylor took a deep breath and took a hobbled step toward Snake. The man across from him bristled, visibly tensing.

"Man, you got to snap out of it." Taylor was trying to be gentle.

"Snap?" Snake's hand grabbed the back of the chair with enough tension to whiten the knuckles. "Fuck you. You don't know fucking shit."

Taylor braced himself. "No, I don't."

He was trying to play into Plissken's need for control. He didn't know if it would work.

"They fucking killed her. Killed her and all of them because of me. Fucking bullshit." Snake's voice had lost the anger and the cold. It was barren and devoid of emotion.

Taylor had sympathy for Snake, maybe even pity. Plissken had never said it, never needed to say it but Taylor knew what his friend felt for the woman that died. He knew his parents were an even harder blow. To endure both would crush anyone with half a heart. Bill couldn't even meet his friend's gaze. The pain had been there all day.

"I wish it was me. I fucking wish I'd died with them." Snake sunk back down on the chair.

Taylor hesitated and then looked up. Plissken was staring at him. It wasn't the pain in his expression that cut into Taylor's soul but the tears. He'd never seen him cry. Not as a boy when he broke his arm, not when he'd been shot or seen others injured. It wasn't a sob but silent. The watery tears from his right eye were paired with pinkish; blood tainted ones seeping from under the patch.

The tears made the words worse. Snake had never given up on life. He'd never faltered in his desire to survive. When Taylor looked on him now he could see Snake meant those words. Taylor could only imagine. He'd seen his family butchered but so had Snake. They were Snake's family just as much as his. There was more to Plissken's pain than that. He was the command of the squadron. In his mind, his orders were what caused him to lose the only woman Taylor ever saw get into his soul. No matter what reality was. He knew Plissken would carry that scar, that blame and guilt inside from here to his grave.

Taylor crossed the room and sat on the chair across from Plissken. His friend was back to the silence but his posture had sank to defeat. Bill was searching for anything to say but what could remedy this? Nothing. Nothing would bring back the people they had lost. Nothing could repair his eye or Taylor's leg. Bill watched him for a while longer and then sighed. Plissken's mood was creeping into his.

A longer silence passed before a whispered sentence caused Taylor to snap out of the depression.

"Wish I was fucking crazy like they say. Then I wouldn't give a shit about anything. Be easier if it was insanity."

Taylor nodded "They're out to make everyone insane."

Snake sighed and shook his head. "Fuck them."

Plissken got up and left the room. Taylor didn't need to follow. He knew that tone. Snake was pissed off and someone was going to pay. 


End file.
